During most eye surgeries, the patient is laid on a substantially horizontal surface. The eye surgeon often sits at the head of the patient looking down over the patient's forehead into the patient's eyes. The scrub nurse that typically assists the eye surgeon sits at one side of the patient's head.
The surgical console needed by the surgeon to perform delicate procedures involved in vitreoretinal surgery is typically positioned near the knees of the patient. The cables and fluid lines running from the surgical console to the various instruments and handpieces used by a vitreoretinal surgeon are draped over the patient. Typically, the actual draping of the cables and the fluid lines over the patient is done by a sterile nurse. The sterile nurse must take great care to keep the tubing sections as straight as possible to avoid kinking and to avoid constricting the range of movement of both the cables and the fluid lines. Such precautions are taken to not restrict the ability of the surgeon to move the instruments and hand pieces attached to the cables and fluid lines.
Prior art vitreoretinal surgical consoles used in various types of eye surgery typically include a screen or monitor which the scrub nurse uses to assist the physician by changing various parameters enabled by the surgical console. As the vitreoretinal surgical console is located near the knees of the patient, the screen or monitor is also located near the knees of the patient. Such location requires the scrub nurse to turn a full ninety degrees then adjust her vision from something up close to something a few feet away.
Accordingly, there is need for an ophthalmic surgical console system which avoids the kinking of the tubing and cables running from the equipment console to an eye surgeon and at the same time maximizes the usable service lengths of the tubing and cables for unrestrained movement by the eye surgeon. There is also an additional need in the art for providing better access to the input screen or monitor mounted on the ophthalmic surgical console.